Gordon Jin inducted as EIC Fellow

May 29th, 2015

By Moira Baird

Gordon Jin inducted as EIC Fellow

Gordon Jin, academic staff member for co-operative education with the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, was inducted as a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) on May 26 for his contributions to the profession. He was one of 21 engineers in Canada inducted during the institute’s annual awards gala in Montreal.

The institute annually recognizes outstanding engineers among its academic and industry-based member societies. Mr. Jin was nominated for the award by the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE), a learned society with which he has been affiliated for more than three decades.

The EIC citation recognized Mr. Jin for his “remarkable contributions to engineering in Canada and to his engineering society.” It noted he has been recognized throughout his career by the Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Newfoundland and Labrador (PEGNL) Service Award, the CSCE James A. Vance Award and the EIC Canadian Pacific Railway Engineering Medal.

“This is probably one of the highest honours that I will achieve as an engineer,” said Mr. Jin. “Mahatma Ghandi said, ‘The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.’ Volunteering and the advancement of the profession has been a big part of my life.”

Mr. Jin joined Memorial’s engineering faculty as a co-op education coordinator in 2009, following 27 years with the provincial government.

He obtained a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Memorial in 1982 and started work with the provincial government the same year. There, he was a civil and structural project engineer with the Department of Public Works and Services before moving to the Department of Transportation and Works in 1996 as a senior bridge design engineer.

Mr. Jin has received a number of awards for his contributions to the engineering profession. In 2010, he received the PEGNL Service Award, an organization he has served since the early 1990s. In 2004, he received the CSCE’s James A. Vance Award for dedicated service in advancing the society and promoting civil engineering.

Mr. Jin was awarded the EIC’s Canadian Pacific Railway Engineering Medal in 2001 for many years of service and leadership to the institute and its member societies. The award noted that he provided “tireless and dedicated leadership” to the development of the CSCE in Newfoundland and Labrador. He served as CSCE president in 2009 and received the CSCE-NL Leadership Award in 2014.

In addition, Mr. Jin co-chaired the provincial Head Tax Redress Committee that successfully sought apologies from the provincial and federal governments for imposing a head tax on Chinese immigrants. Both levels of government formally apologized in June 2006.

Between 1906 and 1949, the Dominion of Newfoundland imposed a $300 head tax on Chinese immigrants, including Mr. Jin’s father who arrived in 1931. Since 2007, Mr. Jin has been president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Headtax Redress Organization with a mandate to educate the public about the head tax, its effect on the local Chinese community and the contributions of Chinese immigrants to the province.